One of the California children with “polio-like” symptoms ate raspberries right before she got sick, her mother said Wednesday -- but that didn't seem to set off any alarm bells about pesticide residue from the medical experts investigating the baffling outbreak.

“She was wheezing, then she had lunch with raspberries and then we went to [the] pediatrician's office where they said she sounded like asthma,” Jessica Tomei said in an email, describing the symptoms her daughter, Sofia Jarvis, experienced in November 2012.

“On the way home she threw up. The next day we were in the hospital. 5 days later her arm was paralyzed. I kept mentioning the raspberries but botulism was ruled out.”

Doctors and public health officials have focused on microbes in their hunt for the cause of the cluster, which so far comprises five children in the San Francisco Bay area and a reported 20 more throughout the state. The five cases occurred between August 2012 and July 2013. Officials said a rare enterovirus – a stomach bug – was detected in two of the cases.

But given Jessica Tomei’s account, pesticide residue seems to us like a prime suspect. “Fruit is notoriously difficult to grow organically and without pesticides,” Jeff Moyer, farm director at the Rodale Institute, an organic research institution, is quoted as saying on the institute’s Web site. According to the institute, “Because most fruits have soft skins, the pesticides that are used to kill those bugs (and the molds and fungi that also love fruit) get into the flesh and into your mouth, and no amount of peeling or washing can remove them.”

We reported Wednesday morning that Sofia’s parents, Jessica Tomei and Jeff Jarvis, are professional winemakers, but her mother was dubious of a chemical connection via that route. On Wednesday, she mentioned the raspberries as a likelier source of pesticide.

“She had raspberries the morning of her illness -- they ruled out botulism. If what you are saying is true, perhaps the raspberries played a part. I believe more chemicals are used in that type of agriculture vs. vineyard. Interesting thoughts.”

In our 2011 series, The Age of Polio – How an Old Virus and New Toxins Triggered a Man-made Epidemic, we proposed that beginning in the late 1800s, the poliovirus – for millennia a harmless enterovirus – was rendered dangerous by its interaction with the new agricultural pesticide lead arsenate. Our theory: the pesticide caused damage that allowed the virus to penetrate the nervous system and reach the spinal cord, where it caused the paralysis called poliomyelitis.

Among the earliest poliomyelitis outbreaks were three California clusters – in the agricultural epicenter of the San Joaquin Valley; the San Francisco area; and San Francisco and the wine-growing Napa Valley. We believe those locales point to intensive commercial farming and early use of lead arsenate in fruits and vegetables. When DDT came along after World War II, the epidemics exploded on an even larger scale, until the development of the vaccine in the 1950s wiped out the virus.

Jessica Tomei’s account brings potential pesticide exposure directly to one of the five children in the cluster, the day her symptoms began. The fact that Sofia was “wheezing first, but slightly,” according to her mother, might mean she was coming down with a virus. Doctors said two of the five children showed exposure to Enterovirus 68. (Polio is also an enterovirus.) All had evidence of spinal damage on scans.

The amount of pesticide used to create commercial fruit crops is eye-popping – 589,806 pounds on raspberries alone in California in 2009, the latest figures available from the Pesticide Action Network’s database.

Our theory and the link to California agriculture raises the disturbing possibility that while a vaccine wiped out poliomyelitis, there’s no shortage of other viruses and pesticides capable of coming together to cause the same havoc.

Another possibility: a scenario called “provocation paralysis.” During the polio era, before a vaccine wiped out the virus in most countries, children sometimes suffered paralysis if they had an active polio infection and got a needle stick – for a vaccine, antibiotic, or IV, for example. It was provocation polio, in fact, that led us to our theory involving pesticides, since there could be more than one way of creating an opening to the nervous system for a viral invader.

In a press conference earlier this week, Jessica Tomei described the progression of symptoms and said that Sofia got an IV while she was hospitalized.

According to ABC World News, “After treatment by her pediatrician didn't help, Sofia spent four days in the hospital, but her breathing was still not completely clear.

“Her doctor suspected it might be pneumonia and gave her an antibiotic, but as the family was leaving the doctor's office the little girl reached her left hand out for a toy, and, her mother said, ‘mid-grasp her left hand dropped.’

“Jessica Tomei said she thought her daughter's arm was hurting because that was where he had an IV, but three days later she still was not using her arm.”

A 1995 New England Journal of Medicine article looked at the fact that paralytic poliomyelitis was 5 to 17 times higher in Romania than in other countries and concluded that frequent injections in children who had recently gotten a live-virus polio vaccine was the reason. “Provocation paralysis … may rarely occur in a child who receives multiple intramuscular injections shortly after exposure to oral poliovirus vaccine, either as a vaccine recipient or through contact with a recent recipient.”

In the United States, a killed virus is used in the polio vaccine, so speculation that the vaccine itself triggered any of the California cases appears implausible.

--

Dan Olmsted is Editor and Mark Blaxill is Editor at Large of Age of Autism. They are co-authors of the book The Age of Autism – Mercury, Medicine, and a Man-made Epidemic.

Comments

I am convinced that the latest AFM breakout in children (skyrocketing numbers since 2016) is partially due to a new roadside spraying campaign along federal highways as well as pretty much ALL state roads where I've travelled int he US these last 3 years. A new class of herbicides far too strong for agricultural use has been foisted upon the public in the name of highway safety, blighting our nations once green roadsides. And in the name of controlling "invasive species" on public lands. The herbicides used have names such deceptively innocent names as "Habitat" and "Journey" and are a mind-numbing mix of devastating toxics like imazapyr and dicamba along with surfactants to make sure the chemicals penetrate the surface of plants (which also mean they penetrate the skin's oil barrier in animals and humans. Herbicides and Pesticides have long been linked to cases of transverse myelitis ( and lupus and rheumatoid arthritis and other "autoimmune" diseases in the people who work as pesiticide applicators. So I don't for a second doubt that children, being so much more vulnerable to these chemicals, are the victims of herbicide exposure along roadsides and in the national and state parks. The spraying began in earnest in 2016 in our area, 2014 in other areas. It happens usually mid-summer to mid fall - EXACTLY WHEN CHILDREN AND ADULTS are coming down with this AFM disease.

How common is lead arsenate in residential areas? I presume you are talking about this pesticide only being used on certain berries that most likely would not be grown in someone's backyard. Is there a map that shows where these cases occurred? Is this pesticide spread around by crop dusters? It would be nice to know if there was overuse of that substance. Sometimes the dose used on certain fields exceeds the recommended amount for a certain crop. I have no doubt that the combination (lead arsenate and a nasty virus or other bug) you are describing causes paralysis. The whole Bay Area used to be called the Valley of Heart's Delight. That was because of this area was covered in orchards (apricots, cherries, prunes, plums). The house I live in was built in 1926. When I moved there over 50 years ago the remnants of orchards were still apparent. I don't believe raspberries were grown around here. But there were vineyards. Quite a few, actually. Anyhow there could be residues of DDT and other pesticides as well.

"Increasing agricultural use of several cluster 2 chemicals
Epidemiological and human exposure data for most chemicals in cluster 2 are lacking. We thus sought to evaluate exposure potential by analysing chemical usage and food commodity residue data collected by the United States Geological Survey, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). All of the mitochondrial complex III inhibitors in cluster 2 showed positive environmental usage trends since their EPA registration in 2000 or later (Fig. 7). Usage of complex I inhibitors (rotenone and pyridaben) is low and unchanging, with the notable exception of fenpyroximate, the most potent superoxide producer we identified (concentration for half-maximum response (EC50)=0.007 μM; Supplementary Fig. 8b). Many cluster 2 residues were found on conventionally raised food commodities, particularly leafy green vegetables, and were detected at relatively high levels, up to 20 p.p.m. in the case of pyraclostrobin. These data suggest significant human exposure potential to many of the chemicals in cluster 2.

Figure 7: Usage trends and environmental fate of cluster 2 chemicals.
Usage trends and environmental fate of cluster 2 chemicals.
(a–i) Left: amount of chemical (alphabetical order) applied in the United States based on United States Geological Survey data. (a–i) Right: the five foods with the highest residue levels and the year of detection based on USDA and FDA data spanning 2008–2012. Red arrows indicate the year each chemical was first registered for use with the EPA. Chemicals approved before 2000 list the registration year in red font below the x axis. Spinach tested for high levels of fenamidone in both the 2009 USDA and FDA surveys (c), hence explaining why ‘Spinach (2009)’ is displayed twice.

Full size image (170 KB)
Previous
Figures index
Discussion
Abstract• Introduction• Results• Discussion• Methods• Additional information• Accession codes• References• Acknowledgements• Author information• Supplementary information
By comparing gene expression profiles of cortical cell cultures with expression data from human brain disorders, we identified a group of eight chemicals (cluster 2) that transcriptionally mimicked ASD, brain aging and neurodegeneration. These chemicals, most of which inhibit mitochondrial complex I or III, stimulated free radical production and disrupted microtubules. We found that pretreating with a microtubule stabilizer, an antioxidant, or with sulforaphane could reduce these effects. Whether this transcriptional and cellular response is related to the marked clinical efficacy of sulforaphane at treating ASD symptoms27 remains to be determined.

Numerous studies investigated a link between the inhibition of mitochondrial complex I, neurotoxicity and neurodegeneration in animal models24, 34, 35. Rotenone (in cluster 2) has been shown to increase Parkinson’s disease risk in humans25. Cluster 2 also included a relatively new class of fungicides (quinone outside, Qo) that inhibit mitochondrial complex III. No evidence of neurotoxicity was noted for two of these fungicides, pyraclostrobin and fenamidone, in a set of assays used by regulatory agencies36, 37. However, a single oral dose of trifloxystrobin (also in cluster 2) reduced motor activity for several hours in female rats and for 3 days in males38, suggesting a strong interaction with sex. Picoxystrobin (not in ToxCast Phase I library), marketed as the most rapidly absorbed and most systemic (in plants) of all Qo fungicides, caused acute neurotoxicity (reduced motor activity) at the lowest dose tested in rats39. Further, mitochondrial complex III-deficient mice showed severe superoxide-dependent damage to cortical brain regions and profound motor deficits that were apparent at night, during their active phase40. Note that standard acute and chronic neurotoxicity assays are performed during the day, when rodents are less active, possibly reducing the power to detect motor deficits. Mitochondrial complex III inhibitors can additionally block neuronal differentiation by maintaining embryonic stem cell pluripotency41, suggesting a potential for neurodevelopmental effects.

Usage data indicate that Qo fungicides are increasingly prevalent on food that is consumed by humans of all ages. At least one cluster 2 chemical (pyraclostrobin) is present in the environment at levels that affect non-mammalian organisms42, 43 and was detected at high levels on foraging honeybees, further corroborating high levels in the environment42. To address whether these levels are a risk to human health, recent in vitro reverse dosimetry extrapolations from the EPA found that food levels of pyraclostrobin exceed the human oral equivalent dose necessary to affect mitochondrial processes44. However, Qo fungicide residues have not been detected on organically produced foods (EPA and USDA data), suggesting a way to minimize exposure.

Our finding that cluster 2 chemicals mimic the transcriptional changes of autism, as well as the aging brain and neurodegeneration was surprising, particularly given the different ages of onset and disease symptoms. Oxidative stress and cytoskeletal integrity are implicated in all of these conditions45, 46, 47, 48, 49, suggesting that overlapping pathological processes might drive the transcriptional similarities we observed. In support of shared biology, we found that ASD, the aging brain, Alzheimer’s disease and Huntington’s disease exhibit altered expression of a common set of genes more so than any of the other neurological gene sets we tested (Supplementary Fig. 12a). Many of the genes that were differentially regulated by pyraclostrobin were also found in the M16 and M12 ASD gene modules (Supplementary Fig. 12b–e). Moreover, when focusing specifically on the genes in these ASD modules, the direction and magnitude by which these genes were dysregulated in ASD patient samples was strongly correlated with that of pyraclostrobin treatment in our cortical cultures (Spearman r=0.66; Supplementary Fig. 12f), further suggesting a common mechanism. The fact that these neurological conditions shared a core set of dysregulated genes may contribute to the enrichment observed for cluster 2 across these diseases. However, we cannot exclude the possibility that molecular pathologies are shared by some but not all of the conditions. Disentangling these relationships is beyond the scope of our current study, but suggests a fruitful area for future research.

Several of the chemicals in cluster 2 unquestionably kill neurons at higher concentrations (Supplementary Data 1), consistent with other studies9, 50. This raises the question of whether cluster 2 reflects the transcriptional signature of ‘sick’ neurons. We identified several chemicals that killed cells at multiple concentrations (Supplementary Data 1), yet only those that were associated with O2− production, microtubule destabilization and elevated expression of neuroinflammatory genes were assigned to cluster 2. It thus seems unlikely that cluster 2 is reflective of chemicals that nonspecifically kill neurons at high doses and sicken neurons at lower doses. In fact, chemicals can kill (and presumably sicken) cells via distinct mechanisms32, with one of these mechanisms being ‘microtubule destabilization.’ Rotenone and vincristine fit within this class32, likely providing additional insights into why paclitaxel (a microtubule stabilizer) attenuated the soma swelling and O2− production phenotypes induced by a cluster 2 chemical (Fig. 5). Our study also shows how systematic transcriptional studies with neurons can uncover new brain- and disease-relevant relationships between chemicals that cannot be identified using existing toxicology assays (Supplementary Fig. 6), including those that rely on cell death as a readout.

Though estimates vary, ~50% of cells in the adult human central nervous system are neurons57. This is in contrast to the embryonic culture system employed here, which is comprised of over 70% neurons. This disparity has the potential to bias physiological signatures and impair the ability to detect some disease-relevant processes. Although our cultures show a very similar representation of brain cell markers relative to E14.5 whole mouse brain (Supplementary Fig. 1), suggesting our cortical cultures—dissected at E14.5—contain the major brain cell classes in biologically realistic proportions. Moreover, the model system employed here is amenable to high-throughput screens and functional assays17. Ultimately, candidate chemicals identified with a cortical culture system will require validation in animal models."

A fatal condition affecting FOUR times as many people in Washington than elsewhere in USA!

Another non fatal illness (spina bifida) affecting three times LESS people here.

Chemicals in the form of prescribed drugs to the mother come out as the top risks and this must include VACCINES for the pregnant mother now given when previously they werent.

Toxic chemicals in water come a long way behind but are a possibility.

Nitrates are mentioned but as a chemist this seems rather far fetched as a cause not least because where I live in France the water is full of the stuff and not a lot of people born with their brains missing as in Washington or if so they keep quiet about it.

In fact the problem is quite the opposite too much STUFF growing too damned well.

THALIDOMIDE is one of the very few CHEMICALS that we found and accepted as HARMFUL. And it took out another area of our bodies. Rarely it was not lethal or if it was no one noticed or people kept quiet about the fact.

Most of the time its business as usual.

DONT LOOK for chemical harm.

And most important

Dont even mention the chemicals in common to all cases

And especially

Ones not always in common (missed, forgotten or not considered important)

We are looking for NEUROTOXIC chemicals and not simple NITRATES.

Why wasnt there a decent ANALYSIS of the well water?

Only the scurrulous assertions that a substance practically harmless is present.

If thalidomide was found as a bad chemical more than 50 years ago why do we NOW refuse to consider more chemical harm today when the number of suspect chemicals is so much larger?

We do not know WHAT the cause of the outbreak of so called "NOT POLIO" in Los Angeles.

We must not assume the doctors are idiots and in fact their medical abilities SHOULD outclass any non-medical person by a very long degree.

Having said that, this illness/disease/disorder is a WORRYING epidemic and if multiplied up across USA would amounts to thousands and match an of any of the past polio outbreaks.

It is worthy therefore of some effort to find the cause as it may explain past causes and PREVENT future ones.

Arguments over whether or not it is POLIO are of no real concern.

The argument and debate should be on why a healthy person suddenly and for life has lost their use of an arm!

Doctors CANNOT find an infectious AGENT.

Assuming they are not idiots then we are looking for a NOT infectious agent.

What are the candidates?

CHEMICALS

CHEMICALS

and

CHEMICALS

Whether in the food or life style of the family.

Wine growers do use DANGEROUS chemicals and I do know chemicals used in this industry in France have been blamed rightly or wrongly for wrecking the health of people for life.

This girls life has also now been wrecked and I note the parents play down harm from their own use of dangerous chemicals but are freely putting the blame on other users of land and their over use of dangerous chemicals.

So what chemicals could cause this?

Evidently the top of the list would be a DELAYED ACTION NEUROTOXIC chemical.

For the 1934 Los Angeles NOT POLIO outbreak the use of oils to prevent the NOT POLIO outbreak spreading would include PHOSPHORUS compounds such as TCP (TRICRESYL PHOSPHATE).

The doctors also injected into some of the number a mix containing MERTHIOLATE, today known as THIMEROSAL etc etc etc and in amounts a 100 times that normal to give to a one day baby in USA from 1991 through 1999.

In 1934 we never found the cause of a serious illness.

To be fair we never seriously looked at a chemical cause.

And to this day we never HAVE looked at a chemical cause for most illnesses.

The last very important realisation of chemical illness was the death, permanent illness and passing on to future generations of adverse health from TEETHING POWDERS andtheir role in causing PINKS DISEASE.

That took between 100 and 150 years to find the cause.

Good luck here when one cause can be definitely rules out by AUTHORITY:

that of harm from choose one of three:

CHEMICALS

CHEMICALS

CHEMICALS

And those hiding it will no doubt tellme FOOD and WATER are

CHEMICALS

Ha Ha but this illness is SERIOUS

And deserves

SERIOUS consideration of all possible causes and that includes serious consideration from the PARENTS too.

Oh no, this caught my eye since I live about 200 miles from the Yakima area. Sounds similar, and the area is in the Apple producing region of Washington State. Neural tube defects increased at an alarming rate basically unchecked, without a known cause.

Some troll named Anne L. Hilliard seems to be on the attack for anyone who mentions any environmental cause of this outbreak. She keeps referring to it as "polio" and blames immigrants. She doesn't even realize or acknowledge that these children were vaccinated against polio. She seems to he protecting several industries in her bias. Honestly the news reporting is on this is terrible.

it's also interesting that CA Dept PH Pesticide use/application GIS portal has been for the last few days for 'maintenance'. I had used it awhile back to do some research- quite nice when available.
link: http://www.ehib.org/tool.jsp?tool_key=18

A quick run of data on one of their other sites indicated that thre'd been a steady increase in pesticide-related incidents from 2005 to 2011 with the bulk of increase coming in the 2008 or 2009 timeframe.

Great video, Laura. There could be an entire piece promoting it. Dr Haley, PhD chemist/biochemist came out the clear winner against Dr. Offit, Pediatrician. I liked it when Dr. Haley came out and said Dr. Offit is in actuality anti- science.

..."We believe those locales point to intensive commercial farming and early use of lead arsenate in fruits and vegetables. When DDT came along after World War II, the epidemics exploded on an even larger scale, until the development of the vaccine in the 1950s wiped out the virus..."

Have to say I disagree with the statement that 'the vaccine wiped out the virus'.

Here's an article, written by Dr. Suzanne Humphries, which certainly adds some depth to this conversation:

..."Unbeknownst to most doctors, the polio-vaccine history involves a massive public health service makeover during an era when a live, deadly strain of poliovirus infected the Salk polio vaccines, and paralyzed hundreds of children and their contacts. These were the vaccines that were supposedly responsible for the decline in polio from 1955 to 1961! But there is a more sinister reason for the “decline” in polio during those years; in 1955, a very creative re-definition of poliovirus infections was invented, to “cover” the fact that many cases of ”polio” paralysis had no poliovirus in their systems at all. While this protected the reputation of the Salk vaccine, it muddied the waters of history in a big way.

Even during the peak epidemics, unifactorial poliovirus infection, resulting in long-term paralysis, was a low-incidence disease[2] that was falsely represented as a rampant and violent crippler by Basil O’Connor’s “March Of Dimes” advertising campaigns. At the same time as Basil O’Connor was pulling in 45 million dollars a year to fund the Salk vaccine development, scientists started to realize that other viruses like Coxsackie, echo and enteroviruses, could also cause polio. They also discussed the fact that lead, arsenic, DDT, and other commonly-used neurotoxins, could identically mimic the lesions of polio. During the great epidemics in the United States, the pathology called polio was reversed by alternative medical doctors who attested to great success, using detoxification procedures available at the time – yet they were categorically ignored[3].

Now it is admitted in the medical literature that other viruses can cause polio, yet few people on the street have any idea.

Before you believe that polio has been eradicated, have a look at this graph of AFP and Polio. If you are wondering why there is no data prior to 1996, go to the WHO website for AFP and you will see that there is no data prior to 1996, and note that AFP conitnues to rise in 2011. Acute Flaccid Paralysis (AFP) is just another name for what would have been called polio in 1955, and is used to describe a sudden onset of paralysis. It is the most common sign of acute polio, and used for surveillance during polio outbreaks. AFP is also associated with a number of other pathogenic agents including enteroviruses, echoviruses, and adenoviruses, among others. But in 1955, there was no attempt to detect anything other than polio in cases of AFP. Once the vaccine was mass marketed, the game changed..."

You're right, Linda, complete knuckleheads seem to be in charge; people who mainly want to protect industry or cover their arses. Anne's comments on the Huffpo article shows yet more researchers basically scratching their heads over autism and still yapping on about genetics.
Great comments by everyone. Maybe Erin Brockovitch will also get involved.
At this point I think the 'researchers' or health officials just faffing around should move over and let the people who really want to find out what is causing these problems do the job. It's getting pathetic.

So glad you are continuing to follow this story, Dan and Mark :) Can't say I agree with you, though, that the polio vaccine wiped out polio.

On another note, I know that AoA readers will want to know right away about an AMAZING new video pitting the ridiculous Paul Offit against the brilliant and ethical Dr. Boyd Haley, titled "Vaccines: Are They Safe and Effective?" It is only 36-min. long, so easy to find time to watch, and it is oh-so-powerful! If you know anyone who is on the fence about vaccinating their child or themselves, this should convince them that they would never want to allow a vaccine into themselves or a loved one. Have a watch, and share the link!

Years ago we did not have a type of Clostridium in our soil that causes a form of tetanus in cattle. A cow will start limping in the morning and dead in the evening - blowing up like a balloon--from the clostridium forming gas in the muscles.

It has now spread from farm to farm by healthy cattle that carried it in . If we wanted to get rid of it - we were told we would have to get all our cattle off of the land for a decade - and then it would be right back as soon as we brought in more cattle.

Our cows are vaccinated, but our calves are not. It is just a chance we - take - although a lot of farmers will vaccinate them.
As long as the calves are on their mother's milk they are safe. There is a time in a calve's life about a year old that they grow fast and their gut is more permeable. If during that time of rapid growth -- it is early spring and not much grass - exposed soil -- or late fall and not much grass - soil exposed -- or a drought in the summer and soil exposed and the calf is not vaccinated they might get sick and die fast from this disease --

Winter when we are feeding hay - even if they are out on the pasture - there is no danger. Because there is just nothing to encourage them to graze even a little.

We might have 20 calves and only one will come down with it, or we might lose five, or we might lose them all before you can get them to market, or we might not lose a one. We just don't know. The not knowing is what drives our fear, drives us to vaccinate everything and vaccinate a lot.

Now I fear vaccinating too. -- I fear it more as a matter of fact, but it took a life time of seeing the effects of vaccinating.

WE NEED good research that is not driven by a pharma company that wants only to develop drugs for what ails you. We need to know life cycles, environmental conditions. We need to know about this entire even larger world and more about it than a simple solution of just vaccinating with lots of aluminum, mercury, and pieces of microbes.

That is not what the majority of people are understanding as they call us a fringe group.

Raspberries - you never can tell what has been sprayed on food - you have to trust a farmer to read the labels of pesticides and obey the labels. But raspberries are not often sprayed much.

I think doctors (and possibly researchers) are taught that the simplest explanation is almost always the accurate one. I must have heard that from a half dozen doctors when I was trying to understand my toddler son's issues years ago. I stopped listening to that a long time ago because I don't think it makes sense when the complicated human body is involved. In physics it may make sense because the rules are straight forward without exception (until we learn we have them wrong). But with the immune system being so complicated, a single cause and effect as the rule is unrealistic.

People think that the polio virus causes poliomyelitis which is a reasonable assumption if you follow the rule that the simplest explanation is the accurate one. And in some ways, it is accurate. Without the polio virus or possibly some other enterovirus, poliomyelitis would not occur. Dan and Mark say there may be cofactors that cause the otherwise benign virus to be dangerous. I really like the pesticide explanation, but I can also see the inoculation explanation, and I would propose that both are cofactors sometimes in the same person.

A healthy immune system should be capable of fighting these enteroviruses in the gut with no lasting effects. But there are things that can go wrong in both the active and passive aspects of the immune system. I think of the passive aspects of the immune system as barriers, like the blood-brain barrier. If the gut is leaky, the virus has a better chance of getting past that barrier. Probably there's some sort of blood vessel barrier as well or maybe just the cell membrane barriers. Anyway, I certainly imagine that pesticides, either a chronic or acute exposure, could break down these barriers allowing the virus access to parts of the body that a healthy immune system with healthy barriers would not have permitted. The inoculation theory is the same, only it bypasses the barriers with a needle. Once the virus is in where it shouldn't be, I can imagine either an acute poisoning by or chronic exposure to pesticides changing the response of the active immune system. The appropriate fighting cytokines might not be present, and the virus will proliferate.

I'm always intrigued by the H1N1/narcolepsy connection, and I think a better understanding of it could shed light on the poliomyelitis mystery. It appears that the H1N1 virus causes problems in the brain that result in an autoimmune narcolepsy. But a healthy immune system should have the barriers and active immune response to keep the virus out of the brain. Narcolepsy has been noted to follow H1N1 vaccination with the ASO3 adjuvant in Europe and H1N1 infection in the very polluted Beijing. As a side note, I know of a person in the US who developed narcolepsy after exposure to the virus when she was recovering from a severe concussion. Does the polysorbate 80 in the ASO3 break down the blood/brain barrier? Does the heavy pollution in Beijing break down the blood/brain barrier? Do these people also suffer from a leaky gut or a chronic immune dysregulation? I could go on. Like maybe the HPV virus doesn't cause Guillain Barre Syndrome unless it gets to the nervous system (maybe with the polysorbate 80 in people with chronic immune dysregulation).

But I'll quit, except for one more note. Dr. Linda Watkins of University of Colorado at Boulder has done research on Chronic Pain and its interrelation with the immune system. She's proposed a lot of good stuff, including that the activation of the immune system from surgery can be a factor in creating a chronic pain immune system. I wonder if the anesthesia used could contribute as much as the immune activation by providing an opening in the blood/brain barrier. People who come down with Guillain Barre are questioned about whether they received a recent flu shot (not anymore), whether they had a recent serious injury, and whether they had recent surgery. Is the recent surgery important because of an activated immune system or because of blood/brain barrier breakdown? An interesting question that we could possibly know the answer to by comparing surgeries that involved anesthesia and those that did not.

I lied. One more point. I think we'll find that the gut microbiome is essential to a healthy immune system, both active and passive. So, here are even more possible co-factors.

In some batches of IPV the virus may NOT be killed and it may cause paralysis in some children. Besides, it is possible that the artificial virus strain which, was developed to produce Bill Gates' OPV that are used in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, somehow entered the US water supply. It could be now in water used in agriculture. We may have reemergence of vaccine derived polio in this country.

Partially answering my question, I noticed that OPV wasn't actually discontinued (according to wikipedia) in the U.S. until 2000. For some reason I had the impression they had discontinued using that vaccine before my children were vaccinated.

CDC's ATSDR could certainly be approached by parents in CA to do a public health assessment but ultimately their health assessment report would probably be inconclusive as far as saying there is a link.

In a congressional hearing on vaccine safety, Colleen Boyle, the head of CDC childhood developmental disorder division became tongue tied when she was asked point blank by Congressman Dan Burton if she thought there was a conflict of interest with having ACIP members who were also paid by Big Pharma. She just could not answer the question.

CDC are wishy washy industry puppets. The CDC will walk a middle line as far as whether these pesticides are causing the paralysis citing all sorts of variables. They have zero backbone.

Thank you for this coverage. I hope these families find some answers and effective remedy.

I've been wondering what kind of exposure-window/time-frame should be considered when considering accompanying pesticide or other chemical exposure? We get official vaccine reaction windows that don't appear to be adequate in truly ruling out vaccine involvement in some adverse outcomes, and I wonder with pesticides and such how far back does one need to consider exposure?

A personal question to anyone who might know, possibly not very pertinent, but in 1997 my daughter was given some kind of oral polio vaccine with her other 2 month vaccines. It seems like in terminology OPV is used to refer to the live viral vaccine, but are there or have there been oral forms of inactivated polio vaccine (is that even biologically possible)? I'm wondering if the cessation of the use of OPV in the U.S. has been more a "recommended guideline" than hard fact?

Thanks for the link. Just checking one food, thought I'd pick corn. Last under the long list of allowable pesticide residues on sweet corn on the cob is

Glyphosate 3 mg/Kg 2012 (approved)

Glyphosate is the active ingredient in Round-up (the inert ingredients are thought to potentiate the toxic effects of glyphosate). A one cup serving of corn has .154 kg = 0.462 mg of glyphosate per serving. Take a child who loves corn, who eats not only large quantities of corn, but corn chips, corn dogs, corn bread, corn tortillas, corn flakes, corn syrup, etc., and that's a lot of glyphosate consumed in a little body. Not only that, that's only one of the many chemical residues in corn. Among the others listed, I see:

Fenvalerate 0.1 mg/Kg Withdrawal recommended (JMPR 2012)

In 2012 it was recommended to remove Fenvalerate (whatever that is). Isn't this 2014?

excellent investigative work Mark and Dan. Pesticides on our food is a dark corner we need to look at more as it could play a big part in why our kids got sick (not the only source) but one of many.

The Codex Amlinentarius web site which seyts the allowable residue standards on produce. The Codex web site has a searchable database to look up allowable pesticide residue on our food. Its enough to turn your stomach:

Pesticide the likely culprit, but with what's going on with vaccines including human DNA in them it doesn't surprise me at all when I ran across this article headline "Baby's Rare Brain Tumor Had Teeth", of course this is just a mystery to them when teeth start growing in the brain.:http://news.yahoo.com/babys-rare-brain-tumor-had-teeth-220748968.html

Not long ago there was a report of neural tube defects in rural Washington State. The CDC said it didn't have the manpower to do a thorough investigation - could only go through charts. At the time I thought, what if this was a polio outbreak? Ironically, here we are not many weeks later. So, I'm wondering now if they have the manpower (or the will, interest or intelligence) to do a thorough (or non-thorough) investigation of polio-like paralysis in American children? I wonder if they have the time? They do have a lot of vaccines to sell.

While in the US a killed virus vaccine is used, we do have borders open to travelers from places where live virus is used. Also, wheezing could be caused by an allergic or hypersensitivity reaction. I wonder if the doctor had any evidence of pneumonia (x-ray) and if her blood work showed that she was fighting an infection.